Monday, July 21, 2008

Fish TrapsWatercolor.16" x 20"

I painted this by first blocking out the area of the boat - just using tape and tinfoil to cover the area. I find it is a lot cheaper than using the mask that is found in art stores. Then I used a wet on wet technique to rough in areas of different shades of blue, green and lavender letting the paint blend and move around on the paper. Then I placed wrinkled up saran wrap down over the wet paint. I left it to dry and then removed the saran wrap and the masked area of the boat. You can get some great accidental effects that way. I then painted in the boat and "bumped" up some of the areas of color around the boat and the spit of land. If you do any traveling down in the Bahamian chain of islands off the coast of Florida or even further south in the Caribbean, it is not unusual to see fishermen going out in all sorts of boats - some like this fellow with his crab traps piled up in the bow of his boat. The sea and the way of life of the people that work their boats to eke out a living - fishing and catching crabs - call to me.